


A Quiet Jealousy

by Magnetism_bind



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Feelings Realization, Figuring shit out, First Kiss, Intimacy, M/M, Reunions, Touching, Tumblr Prompt, mentions of Silver/Madi - Freeform, return from the dead, season 3 fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:47:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24947875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magnetism_bind/pseuds/Magnetism_bind
Summary: Silver returns from the dead and Flint can't help his feelings.
Relationships: Captain Flint | James McGraw/John Silver
Comments: 4
Kudos: 87





	A Quiet Jealousy

It’s not fair to be jealous at this moment. It should be a moment of happiness. It *is* a moment of happiness for Silver and Madi, clearly. And yet, Flint can’t help the stab of jealousy in his gut at the sight of them standing there in the sunlight, their arms around each other.

Silver’s alive. That is enough for celebration. Flint tells himself this, and tells himself again later when they’re back at the camp. He sits by one of the fires near the pirate’s side of the camp, watching the flames burn lower and lower, drinking slowly but steadily as the night wears down to an ember.

“Wondered where you had gone off to.”

Flint looks up to see Silver sinking down on the low bench across the fire from him. In the flickering light he looks worn, still burdened by those days in captivity.

Silver looks at him steadily over the fading flames. His eyes are far too alert for a man who’s been captive. Flint feels the need to withdraw, fading to the shadows so he can regroup his defenses by tomorrow. Tonight…he’s not prepared for conversation tonight.

“Thought you’d be with Madi.” He says. There are few secrets in the camp, and the growing intimacy between the Maroon Queen’s daughter and the pirate crew’s quartermaster is certainly not among them.

“I was.” Silver says softly, “and now I am here.“ His gaze remains steady and Flint feels heat gathering at the back of his neck.

"It’s late.” He rises to his feet. “We should get some sleep.” He starts past Silver, heading for the cabin.

“Please.” Silver reaches out and catches his wrist. “Sit a while longer. I…I’m not ready to sleep yet.”

Flint wavers and then allows himself to be drawn down on the bench beside him. They’re too close. He can feel the warmth from Silver’s thigh pressing into his. Somehow, he’s still allowing Silver to hold his wrist. He shifts so he’s holding Silver’s instead.

He rubs his thumb along the mark left by the chains. “Do these hurt?”

“Not anymore.” Silver tells him.

“Liar.” Flint murmurs. He has impulses he can hardly restrain. Silver’s wrist in his hand is so warm, so full of life, it’s all he can do to keep from kissing his pulseline, to feel the proof of life with his own lips. His fingertips will have to suffice. He lets them brush over Silver’s skin once before releasing him.

“It’s a curious thing, thinking you could die at any moment. It makes you consider things anew. Contemplate matters in a fresh light.”

“You’re just now learning that?” Flint’s smile is mirthless. “Clearly you haven’t been a pirate long enough.”

Silver inclines his head slightly. “I will never have been a pirate longer than you, it’s true.”

“Unless you live longer than I do.” Flint feels the morbid necessity to point this out. In light of Silver’s apparent death, he too has been contemplating things anew. And now that Silver has returned from the dead, things have shifted once again.

“True.” Silver says. “But even then, I wouldn’t necessarily stay a pirate.”

“Oh?” Flint turns towards him more, curious. “Where would you go?”

“Somewhere away from the sea.” Silver tells him. “Would you come with me, or would you stay, sailing the open waters until you’re caught and hung or a ship crushes you, or you lose a sword-fight?”

“Well, when you put it like that.” Flint says automatically, and then his brain turns over what Silver said. _Why would you want that_ , is one question he could ask here. _Do you mean that_ , is another. And _please_ , is a third, though less of a question and more of a private, quiet plea.

He looks at Silver, eyes bright in the glowing firelight, the darkness surrounding them except for the dim light from the other fires dotted around the camp.

“I know you have no intention of leaving a life of piracy.” Silver breaks the silence at last. “Like I said, it’s merely been a time of contemplation.”

He’s offering a path out, so that Flint doesn’t have to answer that question. And yet obstinately, he wants to answer it, now that Silver’s turning the conversation in another direction.

“It would depend.”

“On?”

“Where you were going. What you were doing. Whether you truly wanted me along, or are simply planning to leverage your new life on the legend we’ve been building.”

“Oh, I should think we’d have to pick new names.” Silver tells him, and there’s the slightest hint of laughter in his voice now, though Flint can’t quite see his face in the encroaching darkness.

“Well then, with new names, new lives…what do we do?”

Silver shrugs. “Something dull that lets us fade into the background of a place. And at the end of a slow quiet day of work-”

“I already can’t believe you in this other life,” Flint mutters and Silver just keeps talking over him.

“We would go back to our cottage.” He pauses there, letting the picture grow in the silence. A small stone cottage, with a small garden and ivy trailing over the fence around it. 

“And then.” Flint presses.

“We’d go to bed.”

“Ah.” Flint says. “To rest for another day of menial work the following day, no doubt.”

“Well that,” Silver says. “And other things.”

Flint glances at the embers. It’s a very small excuse of a fire to sit by now.

“In fact.” Silver says. “We could do that now.”

He rises slowly, and only lays his hand on Flint’s shoulder once to steady himself. He turns towards the cabin before glancing back at Flint. “Are you coming?”

Flint gets to his feet as way of response. They walk beside each other, glancing at each other in the dark all the short way to the cabin.

Inside the cabin, Flint lights the lamp and watches the room flare into light. He turns and looks at Silver. He could ask about Madi. He could ask why now. But he does neither of those things. Instead he simply draws closer to Silver and slides his hand around the back of his neck, cupping it with his palm.

Silver swallows tightly, looking up at him with bright blue eyes that haunt Flint’s dreams.

“Don’t die on me again.” Flint say. It’s a foolish thing to ask. There are no guarantees in this life for anyone, let alone a pirate. But he has suffered enough loss to break his heart twenty times over. He’s not sure he could bear it again.

“I’ll do my best not to.” Silver promises.

“Very well.” Flint accepts this, and then he leans down and kisses Silver’s lips. Dry, warm lips, lips that part hungrily for him. Flint’s been haunted by these lips as well. And now, those dreams are real.

He strokes Silver’s neck and kisses him again, closing his eyes. This is enough for now. Tomorrow will be a day for questions and decisions and regrets, though he hopes neither of them will hold the last. But for now he draws Silver to him, holding him close so that he doesn’t lose him in the dark.


End file.
